INGLEWOOD – Inglewood City Clerk Aisha Thompson announced the dates the nomination period will open for November elections during the June 21 regular city council meeting after being falsely accused of denying residents the right to file papers to run for the upcoming November election.
“The nomination period to file papers to run for office in November will open July 18 and closes through August 12 at 5 pm,” said Thompson. Residents will need to make an appointment with the City Clerk’s office to pick up the forms and must provide 40 valid signatures from registered voters.
The resident who falsely accused the city clerk of denying her the ability to file is planning to run for office, gave the mayor and Thompson a chance to question what they know about the political process.
“She’s speaking of filing her 501 form which she needs to get from the State who then sends it to me,” said Thompson.
“So she doesn’t know what she’s talking about then?’ asked the mayor?
“No, she does not,” said Thompson.
The resident demanded an outside entity run the local elections which the council has already moved to do.
The Inglewood City Clerk’s office no longer runs the local election after consolidating their election cycle with LA County in order to increase voter turnout. The council consolidated the election cycle in January 2018.
According to the 501 form, it is required of each candidate who plans to run for office before they can either accept or spend money on behalf of her campaign.
The document states the forms are to be turned in to the county election office or to the city clerk.
The resident alleges they have been a resident for seven years but doesn’t know the city clerk doesn’t run Inglewood elections anymore or where to file her forms.
A review of the LA County page to find 501 forms filed by candidates shows the candidate hasn’t filed with their office either.
1 Comment
Hi,
I hope you’re having a great week.
I just wanted to comment on the process of filing form 501. My name is Bobby Brown and I am running for Inglewood City Council in District 2. I went to the LA County Clerk’s office yesterday to file form 501 because as stated in this article the city clerk mentioned that the form gets filed with the state and then the state forwards it to her in the city clerk’s office. I just received a call from the LA County Campaign Finance office letting me know that the form will be mailed back to me because it needs to be filed with the city clerk directly. It’s hard for me to believe that the LA County’s office is incorrect in mailing back to me and with the instruction that it must be filed with the city clerk. During the process of getting this campaign started and registering as a candidate I have been made concerned by the lack of knowledge and transparency in this process. We are continuing to learn more about this process each day and will document the journey along the way so that we can add some transparency and knowledge to the conversation for future candidates to reference.
Best,
Bobby Brown